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Detroit
--- Stop
The
Denial
Op-Ed by
Tom
Watkins/Special
to Tell
Us
Detroit
 DETROIT
- I
genuinely
like and
respect
both
Detroit
Mayor
Bing and
Michigan
Gov.
Rick
Snyder.
It is
downright
painful
to watch
two
good,
decent
men who
profess
to want
what is
best for
the city
and
state,
to be
tangled
up in
“us vs.
them”
issues
that
have the
potential,
if it
has not
already,
to spill
over
into a
racial
divide
with no
easy way
out.
Words
have
consequences.
Mayor
Bing
calling
Gov.
Snyder
less
than
honest
and
“disingenuous”
and the
governor’s
retort
that
Detroit
has a
“cultural”
problem
accepting
help,
are not
advancing
solutions
to the
financial
Armageddon
facing
the
city.
Mayor
Bing,
with all
due
respect,
you have
moved
too
slowly
in
addressing
a fiscal
mess and
structural
mismanagement
that you
inherited
and has
been
decades
in the
making.
As you
so
painfully
know,
the
fiscal
gimmicks,
one-time-only
funding
sources,
paying-your-Visa-card-with-your-MasterCard
borrowing
options
have run
out. The
city of
Detroit
is
heading
towards
bankruptcy
if
drastic
action
is not
taken —
now!
Mayor
Bing,
you need
the
state on
your
side to
solve
the
fiscal
crisis
that has
amassed.
The
choices
range
from
serious
injury
to
death: a
consent
agreement
between
the city
and
state,
an
emergency
manager
or
bankruptcy.
Gov.
Snyder
is
taking
the heat
for over
a half
century
of a
whole
bunch of
politicians,
Republicans
and
Democrats
sitting
in
Lansing
and
Detroit,
who have
kicked
the
Detroit
problems
down the
road.
Today,
we have
reached
the
point
that
there is
no more
can or
road.
If you
have a
hole in
your
roof,
pretending
to fix
it does
not keep
the rain
out. It
is time
to stop
the
pretending
and
spending
and fix
both the
short-term
and long
term
structural
fiscal
holes in
Detroit
government.
No
fairy
tale
The
changes
needed
are
painful
because
they
have
been
neglected
for too
long.
Once
upon a
time, a
Band-aid
or
aspirin
may have
sufficed.
Today,
major
surgery
and
amputation
is
require
to save
the
city.
This is
the
reality
that
needs to
be
faced.
Be
clear,
the only
human
that
likes
change
is an
infant.
The
changes
required
are
difficult
and will
hurt.
When you
deny and
neglect
problems
as long
as city
and
state
leaders
have,
the pain
is only
magnified.
Gov.
Snyder
repeatedly
has said
he is
open to
compromise
on a
consent
agreement,
as long
as it
truly
addresses
the
fiscal
and
management
problems
and
holds
everyone
accountable.
Centuries
ago,
Niccolo
Machiavelli,
in his
famous
book
“The
Prince,”
offered
his
analysis
to the
political
theater
we are
witnessing
today,
as Gov..
Snyder
attempts
to
address
long
standing
and
neglected
problems
in
Detroit,
when he
said:
“It must
be
considered
that
there is
nothing
more
difficult
to carry
out, nor
more
doubtful
of
success,
or more
dangerous
to
handle,
than to
initiate
a new
order of
things.
For the
reformer
has
enemies
in all
those
who
profit
by the
old
order
and only
lukewarm
defenders
in all
those
who
would
profit
by the
new
order,
this
‘lukewarmness’
arising
partly
from
fear of
their
adversaries,
who have
the laws
in their
favor;
and
partly
from the
incredulity
of
mankind,
who do
not
truly
believe
in
anything
new
until
they
have had
actual
experience
of it.”
Stop the
games,
fix the
problem.
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